22 November 2018
Diary of a Corbynista
Rapporteur Schmapporteur?
by Don Urquhart
15 November
Last night I read 50 pages of the Draft Withdrawal Agreement. Unlike Chequers it was very precise and legalistic. My understanding of such things is as nugatory as Chico’s in Night at the Opera. Groucho explains. You know the sort of thing:
The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part.
This morning I woke up ready to resume battle with the tome only to find Cabinet Ministers resigning over the thing and batteries of Tories chastising their leader for giving it breath.
My son had been impressed with my labours the previous evening and asked how my forensic analysis was proceeding. I told him I wasn’t bothering as it was dead in the water but perhaps like Chico I should have responded:
Everyone knows there ain’t no sanity clause.
16 November
There are two backstops. One is to do with what happens when we finally admit we cannot resolve the Irish border question. The other is Theresa May’s method of whipping her MPs to support her withdrawal agreement. This was illustrated by Claire Perry on last night’s Question Time. Here’s what she said to Barry Gardiner:
Your leader is an anti-Semite…I’m not apologising – the man is on the record. Don’t quote me, quote his own MPs. Luciana Berger had to have police protection at the Labour Party Conference.
When you’re losing the argument smear Jeremy Corbyn.
17 November
The Prime Minister on the steps of Downing Street 2016.
We will make Britain a country that works not just for a privileged few but for every one of us. That will be the mission of the government I lead and together we will build a better Britain.
From today’s Daily Telegraph:
Philip Alston, the UN’s rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, warned that poverty in the UK is a “political choice” and that compassion and concern had been “outsourced” in favour of tax cuts for the rich.
In a damning 24-page report he brands levels of child poverty “not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster.
Jacob Rees-Mogg in the House of Commons:
What Theresa May says and does no longer match.
Welcome to our world Jacob.
18 November
The Prime Minister went on Sophy Ridge this morning to tell us that nothing has changed but also that under pressure from the pizza party of 5 Brexiteer cabinet ministers she would be returning to Brussels this week to seek changes to the Withdrawal Agreement and/or put more flesh on the Future Partnership Agreement.
Despite the forests cut down to document progress, the truth is that there has been none for many months. The lengthy negotiation has been between the Prime Minister and her MPs. Barnier’s paradox is that it has been too easy to impose terms on someone unable to speak for her country.
19 November
The Guardian reports that the Barnier/May plan is to formally sign the Withdrawal Agreement on Sunday November 25th. The “Meaningful Vote” in the House of Commons is scheduled for December 18th. Am I missing something here?
I bumped into Martin, a knowledgeable and thoughtful man. He was as scathing as I about all things Brexit so I asked him what he would do. There was a long silence.
I am not really interested in the question, which deals with what will be a footnote when the histories are written. Soon climate change will dwarf all other considerations.
On Saturday 4,000 climate change protesters closed 5 London bridges in a peaceful sit-down protest organised by Extinction Rebellion. It’s not only the Corbynistas campaigning for radical change.
20 November
The withdrawal agreement just kicks the Irish border issue down the road and it is increasingly clear that the status of Gibraltar is suffering the same fate. Spain ceded the territory to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 but has never been happy with the deal. They see Brexit as another chance to get it back. Apparently other EU member countries are looking to put their spoke in so it’s hard to see anything meaningful being signed up to next Sunday.
21 November
Our Waitrose has a box by the exit soliciting food bank contributions. I do my bit, lobbing in baked beans or luncheon meat. It surprised me that female hygiene products were top of the list of things needed. I haven’t contributed any for the simple reason that they are too expensive. Yesterday I encountered a local teacher who told me that some of her pupils had to use toilet tissue or socks. Brexiteers have made a meal of the VAT demanded by EU regulation, but this was abolished in October. To my mind it’s not about tax. Surely these things represent a basic human right. In a recent article Liz Nice reported that 137,000 girls in the UK cannot afford sanitary products. While the Tories queue up to rubbish the United Nations report this is yet another area where human decency has been strangled by the government’s austerity policy.
